Recaps

Theus organized an expedition to the Northern Territory while planning a railway and expanding Blood Port’s industry and workforce. Isaac reached the Resistance Army with Theus’s offer of shelter, but Nora could not lead the coming battle against the Wolves of Winter.

• Theus reviewed plans for an enormous warship and Richard’s destructive Dragon Breath Cannon, then considered how to adapt weapons for Castel’s forces.
• Nini proposed a Symbiotic Pact that could sustain Nora and a Banshee, while Grisha encountered Nora’s headless armored figure in the snow.
• Theus rejected airships as transport and announced a railway from Blood Port to the Northern Territory, with the Prince agreeing to support construction and clear land along the route.
• Theus and Alexei organized recruitment, including workers, Mystic Society members, Banshee medical teams, and a lottery to manage the flood of volunteers.
• Zoe and Josh expanded literacy classes in Blood Port as Theus planned to train students for factory work and relocate industry closer to the port.
• Isaac reached the Resistance Army, delivered Theus’s offer of shelter, warned Gwen that the Wolves of Winter intended to burn the forest, and secured her agreement to cooperate.
• Theus promised shelter for the Northern Territory refugees and ordered the expedition to advance steadily as Castel began shipping railway materials to Blood Port.
• Gwen and Isaac considered Nora’s survival and defeat of the Winter Wolf Guard, while Isaac offered experienced trainers and crates of muskets because Nora could not lead the coming battle.

Isaac and Gwen built the resistance into a force that defeated the Winter Wolf Guard in ambushes and won local support, while Theus investigated the Northern Territory and the spreading White Calamity. The resistance captured Kaven Town, but Lina’s assault on the Winter Wolves left their command in chaos as Isaac and Gwen waited for their next move.

• Isaac armed Gwen’s resistance with muskets and taught its fighters to fire in disciplined volleys against Count Bazel’s pistol cavalry.
• Gwen’s forces ambushed the Winter Wolf Guard, then lured most of its cavalry into the White Calamity’s fog and forest trap.
• Leonard rallied Grey Bear Town’s residents to drive the remaining soldiers from their barracks as the Winter Wolves retreated.
• Theus organized Blood Port’s rebuilding and investigation of the Northern Territory, met Gwen at the Mystic Society, and began searching for answers about the [Named One].
• Granny killed a Candlelight Society Investigator with a Dragon Breath Cannon, and Theus learned that Duke Cohen was his father and that the sea fog was the White Calamity.
• Gwen joined Bettis and Yami in opening a fish-and-fries stall, where Theus met her and questioned her about her Northern Territory origins.
• Isaac persuaded Gwen to use local support and intelligence, and the resistance captured Kaven Town, executed its baron and tax collector, and distributed grain to the people.
• Lina killed the Alpha Wolf and other Winter Wolf leaders, while Isaac and Gwen waited near Grey Bear Town and learned that the Guard’s camp had fallen into chaos.

Isaac’s plans to weaken Bazel’s forces collapsed when Lina captured him, while Gwen led the Resistance Army to seize Grey Bear Town and Slading Fortress. Nini’s expedition found Isaac after a devastating battle, and he woke in a divine kingdom where he discovered that Pollution and evil gods powered its crops and furnace.

• Isaac entered Grey Bear Town to target Bazel’s Transcendent, but Lina found him and captured him after overpowering him across the Sea of Unconsciousness.
• Gwen led the Resistance Army into Grey Bear Town, drove out the Winter Wolves, and rescued Isaac, while Theus and his allies arranged Banshee support for the Northern Territory.
• Theus met Prince William and explained radio and electrical technology, then learned that electricity could turn animals and people into evil creatures and ordered experiments to be tightly controlled.
• Gwen marched on Slading Fortress and seized it, while Bazel escaped with Lina and ordered his deputy to seek help from Octavia.
• Nini reached the Resistance Army’s abandoned camp and attacked Bazel’s Frostland Guards with her Dragon Breath Cannons, while Finier and Una found the unconscious Isaac and took him toward Castel.
• Isaac woke in a strange place, saw an enormous evil god beneath a church, and discovered that the building’s furnace and greenhouse used tangible Pollution to smelt materials and nourish gigantic crops.
• Isaac found Chloe’s diary on a monument, suspected she had died and preserved her soul through [Pupa], and took the diary as he feared Castel and Moth Chasing Flame had fallen.

Theus sent Castel’s Expeditionary Force into the Northern Territory, where it destroyed the allied army and began supporting the Resistance Army. Hunter arrived in Castel as a prisoner, survived his encounter with the Stellar Furnace, and was assigned work, while Theus considered Galahad’s possible ties to the former Empress.

• Isaac fled the church with Chloe’s diary, found Pollution spreading through the Northern Territory, and promised to return Chloe to Castel before she wrote, “Don’t send me.”
• Theus prepared Castel’s expeditionary army for war, joined forces with the prince, and ordered the capture and execution of Count Bazel.
• Gwen rallied the Resistance Army’s defenders as Viscount Frey led the grand dukes’ coalition south, only for Castel’s machine guns to destroy his army in minutes.
• Hunter survived the slaughter and told Theus that the Resistance Army had captured Slading Fortress, then faced the Tribunal and received fifteen years of detention and forced labor in Castel.
• On his journey to Castel, Hunter encountered its steel ships, industrial works, enormous crops, and flying Skyveil Behemoth, repeatedly steadying his mind by invoking Theus’s name.
• Hunter saw the eye within the Stellar Furnace and perceived tentacles stretching across the Storm Ocean before Theus’s name pulled him out of the vision.
• After recovering in the hospital, Hunter met Yami and learned he would work in Castel’s research program, while Theus learned that Granny and Isaac were contacting the Resistance Army.
• Alexei told Theus that Galahad reminded him of the former Empress’s Knight Commander, prompting Theus to consider what Galahad’s oath-bound loyalty might mean.